comicadventuresfandomcom-20200215-history
2013-02-10 - Time To Move On
The call came in late tonight, about 10 PM. It was simple enough, the rich French accented voice of Jean-Phillipe on the phone inviting Besty out for a drink at The Bull Pen Tavern, as if knowing Angel was busy that night. He is already there by the time the call is completed, sitting at a table with his mask pulled up about the bridge of his nose as he takes a bite out of some Southern Style BBQ ribs. Cluster is other there, mask positioned the same way, laughing when Jean-Phillipe gets some sauce on his face and hands him a napkin. She is eating some fried chicken herself, and both of them have some beers with their meals - imported beers of course. Both have their gloves removed as they eat, since they are eating with their fingers. She had been told to get there late at night. And so there she was. She'd never been particularly fond of Jean-Phillipe, but she knows he wouldn't call her for something without a reason, and she has the sense that until she did agree she would be pestered mercilessly. So she arrives then over at the tavern then, slipping off her long coat as she sashays on in, sweeping her eyes about the area. Wondering what he's wanting her for. Jean-Phillipe pats his mouth with a napkin, "Mocking me, Orchid?" He rolls his blue eyes, not actually upset in the least. But when Betsy gets close, his eyes light up with interest, "Besty," a warm smile spreading across his mouth, and perhaps it is on the sly side. "Please, order whatever you want. Cluster though frowns at Besty and snorts softly, picking up some fried okra to eat a piece. She watches you closely. Psylocke glances over at Jean-Phillipe as she takes a seat over alongside him, "Charmed." Her accent is a bit thicker, "So, get on with ti then." She gestures over at Cluster, "And your new girlfriend then?" She goes over to skim the menu of the imported things, eventually ordering some sake for herself as she sits down and crosses her legs, nodding lightly, and then going over to speak in quiet Japanese, "You wanted me here for a reason, so out with it." Jean-Phillipe looks confused for a moment, then shrugs, "If one can date themselves, but that would cause complications." "Would it be considered masturbation?" Cluster seems curious about that answer, but in either case, "And you are right about the complications. How am I supposed to lay Alex if I'm laying my other self?" Jean-Phillipe snickers, "You are still /trying/." Cluster rolls her eyes, "I have memories of seducing women, not /men/, Jean-Phillipe. It is different. I thought about taking him flowers and chocolate, but maybe it be better to buy him another motorcycle instead?" Another sound of choked laughter from Jean-Phillipe as he shakes his head 'no'. But he chews his latest bite of BBQ ribs and swallows it down with some import beer. "It is time for you to move on Besty. You are finished moping, and being angry at your own inability to act non? The world needs you, we need you for X-Force." Talk about getting to the point, though he says, "Pardon me though, I caught you said here for a reason, but not the rest. I'm a bit rusty on my Japanese, perhaps you can help me improve?" A playful smile there on his face. Psylocke cocks her head over, sipping over at her sake, "Well, I suppose it could count from that sort of bit, but only if you both enjoyed it. If not.." She whisks her fingers through her hair, "Ask Remy about his last date with Rogue and how that went." She goes over to take a sip of her sake again, listening as the two banter. Going on in Japanese, rusty or not then as she orders some ice cream a moment later from the passing waiter, "And what is this X-Force? You've not exactly mentioned it before. Are we at the point of spinoff teams Luv? We just taking various concepts and adding a letter of the alphabet in front of them? Or should we be X-Treme with everything?" As her vanilla sundae came, Betsy went to precariously nibble at it, listening over at Jean-Phillipe and Cluster and gesturing at the two to elaborate. "Ah, you get my humor," Jean-Phillipe says. Cluster then sticks finger in mouth and makes gagging sound, "I know Betsy is hot and I would love to have sex with her too, but no more horrible humor." For all her actions, Cluster's light blue eyes are a lit with humor and amusement, obviously teasing her other self. Jean-Phillipe shakes a BBQ covered finger, "I know where you sleep at night," which only draws a light laugh from Cluster. He then turns to look back at Betsy, "It's a small elite team to deal with some of the issues I was required to deal with when I was an X-Man, and also to handle other dark threats that go bump in the night as they say. It is not a team meant to become public knowledge, but to handle the conspiracies, the vampires, and the dark things in life that strive to overwhelm the chance at a future for all of us." Jean-Phillipe then pauses as he watches Betsy take a bite of ice cream and mmmms lightly. "In either case, you are adrift and aimless right now. I do not know what happened to you in the past entirely, just that you were forced to swap bodies with someone. I do know that there are some things haunting you, preventing you from being everything and doing everything you can. There is so much more to you," Jean-Phillipe says that with slightly narrowed eyes, an intense expression. "I want to see that 'you', you could be spread her wings and take flight, to stop being held grounded." Psylocke glances over at Jean-Phillipe, "So you're making a group of misfits wtih attitude then?" She fluffs her hair back, "And don't you dare tell me, Jean-Phillipe, what I am and what I am not capable of doing on my own end. And I never thought you gave more of a damn about me other than a set of double-dees." She works over on her ice cream then. Sallying back with a counter-taunt then, but not saying no up front over. More like playing her role then, and shifting over. "And we all know there are dark things out there. Dark things that are best left locked up, dumped in a dark hole, and then set on fire." She sighs, gesturing at him to elaborate on. "Ah, that is because you have kept me at arms length if not further before," Jean-Phillipe advises Psylocke, "That is why you do not know. But you, you I have watched." He licks a finger tip clean of BBQ sauce. He chuckles at your dark hole and set on fire comment. He appears generally amused, "Exactly, and our job would be to make sure that happens or worse if it dares to disobey," a darkness to his eyes, before Jean-Phillipe chuckles lightly. Cluster actually speaks directly to Psylocke this time, "You will be surprised of what we can know about people. That is not the point here though, the point is the future. We wish to remain free and alive, and we wish those at Xavier's Institute do as well. There are forces working to stop this, to even wipe mutants out of existance. We need an elite group to combat that, and with each member, our purpose expands. Because there is more to life than just one facet, and there are many that struggle with the darkness within." There is a quiet moment as Cluster seems to gather her words, swallowing another okra. "Listen, this team is more than just protecting the future of mutant-kind. It is also a team meant to help deal with the that darkness in each of us to help us fight our personal wars. We do not know the details of your personal war, but we know you have one, one you aren't making progress on the way you have trapped yourself within your pain." Jean-Phillipe nods at that, "You don't even have to explain it all or share the details, but this also a group to handle the darkness within, without invading privacy. We need to Betsy, and you need us. It does not need to be complicated. Shocking, non?" The part about it not needing to be complicated. Psylocke glances over at Cluster, and flicks her fingers, "More paranoia than anything else. Was always taught to not do things in the open unless it was the type of place that was meant for doing things out in the open." She wriggles and gets comfortable, "But, if you're sure that this place is safe, then I'm fine with it." She switches to French then, to allow Jean-Phillipe to speak more readily. Her accent is fairly flawless, almost Parisian as she gestures over at him, "So, what are you talking about? A hit team? Something that acts premeditatively then in a way that the Avengers or the Justice League won't? OR are we going to be working more along the lines of the types of things SHIELD does?" Jean-Phillipe nods at that, and speaks in French as well, "/The/ organization working toward the sole purpose to wipe mutants out of existence, branch off projects like Weapon X," branch off?, "vampires, and more. You are the second recruit, and we have another to obtain next week," Jean-Phillipe says. "We are to cripple these organizations and dark conquerors are much as possible to give the future a better fighting chance. I believe X-23 will be one to walk in our footsteps, and I thought Firefly may be one, but her instability has proven it less likely lately. Still, there are fewer in the next generation to do what we can do, so we have to take care of it and prevent the danger from going more threatening." Cluster then mmms softly, "S.H.I.E.L.D. is a curiosity. We have weighed options with that. They are a danger to us, but are useful in keeping some things in check. We do not have an ally in the organization however, and not sure how wise it would be since there have been past ties to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the primary danger at one point." Jean-Phillipe nods. "We are to do what is required, be it an attack before they see it coming, or crushing a program that has formed such as the Prime Sentinels. We need to walk the most efficient route to secure a future. Coming back from the dead is enlightening in its own way. I realized even more that I wish to live, and when my time does come, I somehow have this vision that I wish to be remembered well." No talk of a higher purpose or higher power, just that he wants to have those living remembering him well. "I suppose a form of immorality other than through cloning, a little less morbid, non?" Psylocke shrugs, "Eh, there's worse things." Her many, many experiences in Otherworld, or more from Brian's side, have taught her such things. She takes over a breath and shakes her head, "That girl's got her own head full of demons. I think putting her on the path of reliving them isn't our call." Her voice is soft then, quiet as she thinks of what she's seen of Laura. her eyes flashing back over to Cluster as she considers, quietly taking her time then as she listens to the back and forth of Jean-Phillipe. Her words are soft, "All right, I'm in. You have my attention as far as this goes. Who else do you have involved other than your twin and I?" She flicks her fingers, "And I assume if you're going to be doing something with SHIELD, they'll probably be having someone put a feeler over with us?" Cluster shrugs about SHIELD, "We are undecided, they could be more harm than use. Perhaps we should see if they can catch us," and a wicked grin at that on her face before she rips off a bite of fried chicken. Jean-Phillipe nods at Cluster's words, before saying to Betsy, "Welcome to the team. So far we have Blade, and we will be recruiting Pete Wisdom next week. Headquarters is almost finished being remodeled, we found an hold hidden base that we have adapted to your own needs. It is acceptable accomendations." Cluster giggles at that, seeming to find Jean-Phillipe's comment amusing. The announcement of the other two that have been recruited so far has Betsy bury her face over in her hands, "That bugger. I take it you really are accepting any and all comers." Whether she's speaking of Mister Wisdom or Blade is not particularly apparent. "So, other than a testosterphone fest, you got anyone else over with you that has a sense of subtlety or is that going to be limited to just me?" Cluster flutters her lashes innocently, "We are very subtle, Betsy." And of course, Jean-Phillipe laughs, "When we wish to be. We are a powerful duo. In either case, I have worked with Professor Xavier to have an alliance with the X-Men so we can support one another as required." He hrms lightly, "And let's not tell good ol' Petey just yet, I do wish to very much surprise him next week." In either case, he then pulls a state-of-the-art touchscreen cell phone from a pouch on his belt. He holds it out to Psylocke, "You can use this to contact us or Blade. It also has some custom programming to permit easier sharing of photos, documents, and information." Psylocke nods over at Cluster, "Of course." She takes a breath, "And I don't know enough about you, but I'll assume you know what we're getting into. We're not going into a world where you wear white while you sneak around. Where you hit the alarm over if you think something isn't enough of a challenge. We're going into a world where a lot of people will get hurt, and we can't stop it all the time. And I'll assume you know enough on that end." She knows Pete and Blade do. She takes the cell phone. Cluster and Jean-Phillipe both appear amused. Cluster is the one that speaks first this time, "Come now Betsy, we are able to easily keep up with Wolverine on a mission, he was certainly not complaining about our abilities." Jean-Phillipe nods, "Though we are not leaders. We are funding this operation, but Pete is the one that has to herd us cats." He takes another drink of his import beer. Pete doesn't even get a say, he's stuck with the job, and Jean-Phillipe apparently has full confidence that he will get what he wants from the man. "You know, this Southern cooking is not too shabby." Psylocke shakes her head, "This isn't about keeping up in the field . This is about knowing what to do, and when you have to make a hard choice for the better part of things." But, they seem to get the point now. "And wonderful." Pete's going to be in charge. Hopefully this won't go over to his head. Cluster and Jean-Phillipe look at one another, then look back at Psylocke. Jean-Phillipe states, "I was all for killing off all the Prime Sentinels, I was over-ruled by Hank who said he could reprogram them and he did. Those decisions are not difficult for us, we did not understand the meaning of compassion until we got close to Alex." It is stated so simply matter-of-fact, no shame in it. "I am the nicest one, but I will do what is required of me without second guessing myself. Jean-Phillipe is the one to watch that he does not go too far, rather than worry about him not going far enough." Jean-Phillipe rolls his eyes, but does not deny it. Instead he returns to finishing up his ribs. Cluster does continue speaking though, "This team is to help each other Psylocke. It will be difficult at first, but I believe we will all be good for one-another. There will be a room arranged for you at the headquarters. Please, create a sign for your door, we thought it better to have people personalize their own." Psylocke nods over at Cluster then, pocketing the phone, "All right. I'll check it out sometime in the next few days. " Her hair flips then over as she takes a breath, "But I have a few things to attend to first." She puts her hand down, "I know you both understand, but I don't quite have to put my affairs in order, but I have some people that I have to be up front with the direction I'm going to be going on with my life, and I owe it to them to square things off first." That would be Warren, most likely. Finishing over with her sake and her ice cream, she goes to, if not prompted further, get up, "So, will that be TTFM then?" Jean-Phillipe mmms, "We would be so much better together." He smiles lazily at that as he looks at Psylocke. Cluster smiles softly with a hint of humor and a hint of wistfulness. But she then takes a drink of her own import beer before simply say, "Take care Betsy. We will contact you soon, but we will give you a few days." Psylocke nods over, "Thank you for understanding, Jean-Phillipe and Cluster. I'll let you know when I'm ready. Contact me before then if an emergency comes up." She goes to settle the bill.